The best women's basketball rivalry in the country comes back to Maples Pavilion Saturday.

No. 1 in the country (Stanford) vs. No. 2 (Connecticut), led by the game's most respected active coaches in Tara VanDerveer and Geno Auriemma. Both teams have appeared in the past five Final Fours, but haven't met there since 2010, when UConn beat Stanford to win the title. While other teams have risen based on one dominant player (Baylor) or struggled in a time of transition (Tennessee), Stanford and UConn have remained consistent.

And they use each other as a measuring stick.

"We wouldn't get on a plane and fly 3,000 miles just to play anybody," Auriemma said this week. "You might do it for recruiting or because you just want a trip, but in our case we're here to play Stanford.

"We could've stayed home and played against two teams and know we'd get two W's. But this is an important trip, win or lose."

The last time the Huskies played at Maples, in late December 2010, it was an instant-classic. UConn came in to a highly charged, packed-to-the-rafters atmosphere with a record 90-game win streak and the game's best player, Maya Moore. But the Cardinal upended the reigning champions.

"Any loss is frustrating and sticks with you, but that was definitely a hard one," senior Kelly Faris said. "Because everyone thought we were unstoppable. It was good for us. It opened our eyes and exposed what we needed to work on."

This time, it is Stanford with the dominating streak: The Cardinal have won 82 straight games at Maples. The last loss came in the 2007 NCAA Tournament against Florida State.

Whoever wins Saturday knows there is more work ahead. Both teams are undefeated, but Baylor and Brittney Griner - who Stanford defeated in November in Hawaii - are considered the favorite to repeat as national champions in New Orleans in April.

Still, Auriemma calls today's game a matchup between the two best offensive teams in the country. Though this UConn team doesn't have one standout, like a Moore or Tina Charles, they are deep and well balanced. VanDerveer knows she can't resort to the double-teams she employed against Baylor, because anyone left alone can burn the Cardinal.

While UConn was expected to be strong, Stanford is a surprise. The downturn expected with the loss of Nneka Ogwumike hasn't materialized and the young Cardinal, led by Chiney Ogwumike, have battled every game.

"Every time she steps on the floor, she plays harder than everyone else," Auriemma said of Chiney.

This is the fourth time in four years that the teams have met as the nation's top-ranked teams. UConn defeated Stanford the other three times - twice in Final Four matchups. Both programs' excellence goes beyond the names on the rosters. It's about what each uniform represents.

"There comes a point when the program is bigger than who your players are," Auriemma said.

But not so big that you won't have to search for this marquee matchup. Saturday's game will be televised on ESPNU, a channel that many don't receive or can't find. It's part of a disturbing pattern with women's basketball: despite a proliferation of new networks and channels, high-profile games are too often hidden from sight. Stanford's victory over Baylor was not televised, and their win over Tennessee earlier this month required unearthing something called SportSouth.

VanDerveer and Auriemma are among the best at promoting the women's game and would have been willing - with enough notice - to move their game to a slot that didn't conflict with the never-ending college bowl schedule. VanDerveer called the situation frustrating, noting how electric the last matchup was at Maples. Auriemma said the sport is caught between two groups, one which can't understand why women's games are ever televised and another which can't understand why its favorite sport doesn't always get prime time exposure.

"If it's two bowl games among the other 56 bowl games, or however many there are," Auriemma said, "then I guess the TV people have done their homework. And decided that some 6-6 team from one part of the country playing another 6-6 team from another part of the country is probably a great game. And that's the battle we fight all the time.

"I don't know how you win that battle, other than to play a game that everyone says, 'Wow, I wish more people had seen that.' "